


Leverage, Season 3, Episode 3, The Inside Job

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Leverage
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e03 The Inside Job, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24554425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 6





	Leverage, Season 3, Episode 3, The Inside Job

In my view, this is more-or-less the episode Parker becomes Nate and Sophie’s daughter.

Open to Parker in trouble at an agricultural corporation due to the building’s security system.

Meanwhile, Nate is making breakfast, and coming in, Sophie comments on it. He points out, aside from being headquarters, this is his home, and not unreasonably, he doesn’t want to use a hot plate in his room. He feeds her some of it, and the tension-filled dance begins only to be interrupted by Parker’s one not-completely-horrible foster dad, Archie, calling Parker’s actual dad.

Automatically grabbing his coat, Nate is asking where Parker is, and piecing things together, Sophie isn’t happy their daughter went on a job without them or her future husbands. Archie, however, is unable to tell Nate anything more due to the armed people about to catch up to him.

At the building, the BGotW’s devoted security officer is introduced.

I’m really curious about all these BGotWs who have devoted employees. There’s never any sign of enamourment on the part of the devotee, and they all know their boss is not good, but they’re unquestionably devoted for reasons that aren’t expanded on.

Over to Parker’s warehouse of creepy, Team Leverage is piecing things together, and aw, there’s Bunny on the bed. Hardison doesn’t think he can beat the building’s security system in so little time, but Nate asks him, for the sake of his daughter, Hardison’s future wife, can Hardison do this?

Yes.

Then, “Let’s go steal a Parker,” Nate announces.

They get to the building, and the future husbands lash out at one another due to worry about their future wife. Settling his future sons-in-law down, Nate realises where Archie made the call from. He sends Sophie and Hardison into the building, and he and Eliot go to see if Archie is still around.

There’s a nice moment where Sophie reassures Hardison.

Inside, the BGotW is introduced. She, her security guard, and an employee talk about Parker, and the employee gets a message about British auditors showing up.

Downstairs, Sophie and Hardison introduce themselves.

Meanwhile, Eliot and Nate find Archie. Thugs appear, and at Nate’s nod, Eliot takes them down with a little help from Archie.

Archie announces, “I’m her father,” in reference to Parker.

I have extremely mixed feelings about Archie. Parker has been severely traumatised since she was incredibly young. By the time she and Archie came across one another, it’s debatable if she could have been integrated into normal society at that point in time. If not, it came down to: Someone needed to teach her to survive out of it, or she needed to be placed under psychiatric care.

In a much better world, the latter would be the no-brainer answer, but unfortunately, many places that are supposed to help people heal and find their place in society are either abusive, woefully underfunded, or both.

Archie cared for her, but he was selfish. He never sexually abused her, but he did groom her. He cared about her, and so, he taught her how to survive, but instead of using her devotion towards him to see if he could try to find her a safe place within society, instead, he made her a tool.

In the building, Sophie and Hardison are grifting.

Back to Archie, Nate, and Eliot, Archie explains his history with Parker, and there’s a flashback of tween/teen Parker doing gymnastics over lasers to get to a sundae.

I’m hesitant to say this, because, an adult giving a child a tangible, age-appropriate reward for good performance can be a good thing, and outside of the context, this is a cute scene. But here, this is part of the grooming. Learn this skill that will help you be my tool to use in crime, and you get a sugary treat.

“She was your legacy,” Nate says.

Back then, Nate would have tried to find her a safe place within society. When they did meet, adults Nate and Parker approached one another more-or-less as equals. They agreed to do a job together with him taking lead. Afterwards, she agreed to stick around and continue doing jobs with him as the lead.

Parker makes the choice she wants to continue Nate’s legacy of helping people, but Nate sacrificed himself for her and the people she cares about before she made this choice. He did it without expectation. And when she makes this choice, he supports her and helps her. She knows she has other options, and she knows he wouldn’t stop her if she decided on them, but love binds them. A lost girl and a father who lost a child find one another.

Here, Eliot is not impressed with Archie, either.

Archie explains his family is under threat, and Parker was just supposed to help him form a plan to break into the building. She jumped the gun and went in by herself.

Nate and Eliot both know he’s telling the truth here, but they both also expect him to have known Parker well enough to realise this would likely happen.

Sending Eliot to the building, Nate gives Archie an earbud.

Meanwhile, in a glass office people can see in, Hardison is drilling into the wall and lugging around cables.

In another room, Sophie is creating chaos.

There’s more talking amongst Team Leverage, and then, Parker is shown crawling around air vents.

Getting out of them, she blends in with the other employees in order to get access to the phone, and the person she calls is Hardison.

“We are already here, mama,” he assures her. Aw.

However, the security system has found her.

IMDb says Hardison’s phone not being jammed is a plothole, but I don’t know if is or isn’t. He could have just figured out how to unjam his.

He gives her instructions, and they hang up.

Back to Archie and Nate, Nate talks to Sophie, and she notices BGotW is calm within in the chaos.

Hardison looks her up, and Nate believes she’s the one who got Archie to do this. She’s referred to as a ‘client’, but forcing someone to do something under the threat of murdering their family isn’t someone I’d apply such a label to.

They realise, if Parker is caught, she’ll be killed rather than arrested.

In the building, Hardison has gotten an earbud to Parker. Hearing Nate, she asks if Archie is there, and when Archie answers, she apologises for this.

Assuring her he’s okay, he demands to know what she was thinking.

“They would have hurt you or your family. Y-your real family. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Nate glares at Archie.

Archie tells her to just stay focused.

“Yes, sir.” She’s told to look around, and noting how badly everyone is currently stealing staplers and the like, there’s a stupid part where a man apparently has had a long-time crush on Parker’s persona despite the fact he’s never seen Parker before. Even if she largely resembles the woman she’s pretending to be, he still wouldn’t notice up-close that she’s different?

If this man was one of the bad guys, it’d be a neat twist, her having to deal with him, but he’s not.

Meanwhile, Hardison finds a way to get Eliot in, and then, he gets confirmation BGotW is the BGotW. Nate directs Sophie to clear the room of everyone but her.

Sophie does, and BGotW explains she’s developed a grain that is immune to this threat all other grains face. If something were to happen to all the other grains, her grain would be the only choice people had in order to not starve, and this would make the corporation top dog.

As will be established by other characters later, such a famine in combination with the high prices the corporation would demand means a bunch of people would still starve.

Nate figures out BGotW is trying to set someone up for stealing the wheat-killer so that it can be released in order to induce said famine.

Interestingly, Nate is immediately trying to figure out how to stop BGotW, and Archie is insistent they get Parker out immediately.

As I said, Archie does care about Parker, and for all Nate is her father, he’s human. No parent is perfect. Right now, he’s thinking of her as team on the job rather than family, but unlike Archie, he wouldn’t have gotten her into this situation in the first place. Partly, because, he knows her, and partly because he’d have the rest of their family to keep him check.

And so, Parker’s foster dad and adoptive dad give her differing instructions, and thankfully, she’s not still a little girl. Having to deal with two parents who are at odds with one another can be extremely stressful.

Of course, she has her own problems: Namely, that subplot of the guy crushing on her persona.

Getting away, Hardison gives her instructions.

Alone in the meeting room, Sophie agrees getting Parker out is most important, but like Nate, she understands how important stopping BGotW is.

Eliot is up on a sky-lifter, and Parker runs to the window. When he tells her to move away so that he can break it, however, this is when Parker undergoes a transformation. She could get to safety, but she has her father’s legacy to start being part of. If she leaves now, BGotW could get away with setting this up, and the world’s supply could be hit before Team Leverage gets another chance at her.

Archie insists she leave. “This is not what we do!”

“No, this isn’t what you do,” she corrects.

Nate, Sophie, and Hardison didn’t use any coercion here. Eliot is saying the same thing Archie is saying.

When Parker makes it clear she’s going to start truly following in her father’s footsteps, Sophie supports her daughter. She’s not a crusader like Nate is, but she loves him for the fact he is one. Of course, she’s worried, after all, Little Sam was taken despite how safe Nate and Maggie kept him, and here Parker and the other two routinely throw themselves in danger’s way, but no one forced the three to be this way. They had chances to walk away in the past, and they all discovered the crusader in themselves. It was only a matter of whether it was Nate’s they wanted to adopt or not.

Parker orders Hardison to clear a path to the vault. She knows what she did wrong the first time around, and she can do better this time.

“Okay,” Nate agrees. “It’s your show, go for it.”

Because Archie cares, he’s furious at Nate. This isn’t just about losing his tool, but the problem is, for a long time, she was his tool, not a person. Like I said, Team Leverage essentially started out as equals. They worked well together due to their high skill-sets, but outside of the jobs, they became more. They got to know one another as people, and none of them would have judged Parker for letting Eliot break the window, but when she decided she wanted to do something different and promised she could do it, they trusted her word, respected her wishes, and worked to help her.

Interestingly, though, Nate’s face is ambiguous when Archie has a breakdown about Parker being killed.

Nate isn’t a good person. He never would have sacrificed Sam and would have tried to do right by tween/teen Parker, but it’s possible he’s wondering here if he’s really no different from Archie. He wants BGotW stopped, and is he using what he earlier called Parker’s brokenness to achieve this at the expense of her as a person?

I’d say no for all the reasons stated above, but this is another difference between the two: Archie never truly wondered if was in the wrong, partly due to not having anyone else to call him out, and partly due to the large power imbalance between them being in his favour.

Inside, Parker runs into a security guard, but taking him out, Eliot makes it clear he’s in with her plan.

The poly trio bicker, and BGotW and DSG are shown in the control room. She directs him to handle the threat Team Leverage is posing.

Nate orders Hardison to get Sophie and get out. Hardison asks about Parker, and Nate’s all, ‘My girl has this handled.’

Parker and Eliot are running around with security on their tails, and when they come across the annoying crush guy, Eliot thinks he’s a threat, but when Parker says otherwise, he immediately backs off.

All this ends with a containment breach going off in the building.

Outside, Archie threatens Nate with a gun, but remember what Nate said to EFB? He’s lost his only son.

Now, he has a daughter and others to look after her. Either Archie shoots him or doesn’t. He’s heading towards the building containing her. If Archie does, his legacy still survives, but this isn’t the sum of it, because, again, Nate sacrificed himself before Parker became his heir.

He trusts Team Leverage will all come out alive, because, they’re all together inside.

Inside, BGotW and DSG go after them, but Nate has tricked BGotW into confessing her evil plan to the media he snuck inside.

Nerves of steel, these media people have.

Later, Nate and Archie shake hands. They establish there’s no love lost between them, but Archie accepts Nate is Parker’s father and Nate accepts Archie will always be important to Parker.

Then, Archie talks to Parker, and he does have some regrets for how he treated her.

Parker loves him, though, and he played a part in her becoming the person she is now. She wanted to be his real family at one point, but now, she’s found her own real family. Hugging him, she makes it clear she doesn’t hold any grudges towards him.

Nate and Parker walk away together.

Fin.


End file.
